House of Leaves
- Thread starter Jace
- Start date
I know it. In fact, I'm sure I've mentioned it here a few times.
Let's have a summary for the newcomers. House of Leaves is, at its core, a complex horror novel by Mark Z Danielewski. It's a multi-layered labyrinthine novel that is supposedly a commentary on a possibly non-existent documentary film called The Navidson Record. Said documentary is about a mysterious house (owned by the Navidsons) that begins to grow in its interior dimensions, rather like a malevolent TARDIS, and which not only seems to inculcate mental illness in those who are in the house, but a mysterious beast may be living in the depths of the newly created chambers, waiting to strike from the shadows. The commentary is done by an old blind man called Zampano (yes, you read that right! A blind man writing a commentary on a documentary film!), and with footnotes partially by Zampano, and partially by a young man called Johnny Truant, who discovered Zampano's manuscript after the old man died in mysterious circumstances.
Because of the story, the annotations, and the weird typography, House of Leaves is a mind-f*** of epic proportions. There are both fictional and real references.
Let's have a summary for the newcomers. House of Leaves is, at its core, a complex horror novel by Mark Z Danielewski. It's a multi-layered labyrinthine novel that is supposedly a commentary on a possibly non-existent documentary film called The Navidson Record. Said documentary is about a mysterious house (owned by the Navidsons) that begins to grow in its interior dimensions, rather like a malevolent TARDIS, and which not only seems to inculcate mental illness in those who are in the house, but a mysterious beast may be living in the depths of the newly created chambers, waiting to strike from the shadows. The commentary is done by an old blind man called Zampano (yes, you read that right! A blind man writing a commentary on a documentary film!), and with footnotes partially by Zampano, and partially by a young man called Johnny Truant, who discovered Zampano's manuscript after the old man died in mysterious circumstances.
Because of the story, the annotations, and the weird typography, House of Leaves is a mind-f*** of epic proportions. There are both fictional and real references.
I have recently read House of Leaves and found it disturbing but facinating. There are great websites devoted to analysing and understanding things like choice of ink colour for text, special notes included with certain editions, connections between characters and the general weirdness of the book itself.
